AK Edit v1.2.1
By Dan Taylor

Introduction
============
AK Edit has been designed to allow quick and easy editing of your AceKard skins.

To get going just start it up and OPEN the directory that contains your skin.

If you want to make a new skin, simply use an existing one as a base; edit the images in Photoshop (or whatever image program you prefer) and AK Edit will help you tweak the fiddly ".ini" files that create the skin!


Installation
============

IMPORTANT: if you have a previous version of AK Edit installed, be sure to delete your "AK Edit.ini" file!

1) Copy the "AK Edit.exe" file to your computer
2) Install the "AceKard.ttf" font (using the Windows Control Panel)
3) Run "AK Edit.exe"
4) Get skinning!

If AK Edit does not work, you may also need to install the .NET framework from Microsoft. You can get it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

Features
========
 - Includes a custom made "AceKard Bitmap" font for ultra-accurate WYSIWYG representation of your skin
 - Use the colour picker to select colours directly from your images
 - Point & click positioning of all on-screen elements
 - Generate screenshots of your skin to help promote it online
 - Write directly to your Micro SD card at the click of a button
 - Clone skins to create new ones quickly & easily
 - Simple, elegant interface
 - Hover your mouse over menu items for instant help

What's new?
===========

v1.2.1
- Changed preview image size to match new AceKard website layout
- Improved animated gif quality

v1.2
- Japanese language file now included
- Image files are released when AK Edit is not the top window
- Images are automatically reloaded when AK Edit becomes the top window
- Added bespoke support for AK AIO
- OS choice is stored to the .ini file
- Detects and writes directly to a Micro SD card with the AK AIO file structure
- Progress window is now visible from the Layout...Forms panel
- Updated the AceKard font


v1.1
- Now writes directly to AceKard RPG (As well as AceKard 2)
- Supports custom OS features (selection bar opacity, extra images, etc...)
- Checks bitmaps are 16-bit and converts them automatically if not
- Users can now customise the game icons to whatever they want (a few have been included to get you started)
- Multi-language support via .akl files (Chinese & French included)
- Improved screenshot generator... Now genrates animated gifs!
- Better error trapping, numerous bug fixes, improved stability



Multi-language Support
======================
AK Edit uses .akl files to provide support for different languages.
You can load them from the menu by going: Customise... Load Language File

These files are simple text files - you can make one your self if you like.
Please be sure to save them as UTF-8 encoded files, though, otherwise special characters will not display.
You can do this using Microsoft Word.

Thanks
======
Thanks to all the AceKard forum members for their support; in particular...
RS1 - for info on the AceKard RPG
Alfadir - for help with the custom OS features and the French language translation
Normatt - for help with the code
TKBook - for the Chinese translation
Takeru - for the Japanese translation
Drooogz - for letting me know of his 16-bit troubles

Contact
=======
If you have any questions, suggestions or bugs, please do e-mail me at...
dan.taylor1000@virgin.net

Thanks,
Dan.


Legal Info
==========
AK Edit  Dan Taylor 2008
AceKard Bitmap Font  Dan Taylor 2008
Font not to be distributed seperately from the executable.